Wide angle close-up lighting.

I've just been studying Dr. Mustards excellent new book 'Reefs Revealed' and after picking my chin off the floor started to wonder how Alex managed to capture that magnificent image of a Lionfish at Ras Mohammed.

Alex used a 10.5 fisheye 1/125th @ f13 which means the subjects nose must have been touching the domeport.

My question to Alex and anyone who uses this combo for extreme close-ups is how do you position the strobe(s) to paint the subject so close to the dome?

Nige

Alex has a wetpixel thread about using the 10.5mm fisheye with a teleconverter. (not as wide as you think. but, still has a huge depth of field.)

Lighting: my guess is edge lighting through part of the dome with strobes pulled in very close.

Take Care,

ChrisS

i've done a bit of this 'macro wideangle' and I find the best technique is to pull the strobes close to the housing, but slightly behind the plane of the dome port (this is key), and angle them outwards so that the 'edge' of the light bean (w. diffuser) just catches the subject.

I try to minimize strobe fill hitting the port, will prob flare or haze up the pic - use the dome shade flaps as a guide to how far back to put the stobes. here's an example using just that technique, not closest i have but only one posted on the web. lionfish is about a foot away (technique works much closer too), D200 w. sigma 15mm FE.

Thanks for the replies guys,

I,ll be giving the technique a go in the near future.

Just hope to find some suitable subjects

nige

I think most of the wide stuff I do these days is close focus, I bring my strobes in very close and angle them in just enough as to not be seen by the lens, the good thing about that is you don't need much power out of the strobes, most times I use 1/4 to 1/8th.

A few examples I could lay my hands on with the Tokina 10-17

Like Patrick and Chris say - strobes close to the camera. Since the camera to subject distance is similar to a macro shot - your lighting can be similar to a macro shot.

I am actually running a photo workshop this week - and this exact issue we were practicing in the pool (using fisheyes to shoot seafans made of fins). I was getting the guys to start with their "normal" strobe positioning and then to keep moving the strobes tighter and tighter to the dome - and see how this changed the lighting when they were very close and further from the subject.

At this distance this photographer found that the most pleasing lighting was achieved with the strobes even closer to the camera. I took this shot to show her, from the side, where her strobes were pointing (although when looking at a shot like this you have to consider the virtual image rather than the actual position of the subject).

Alex

Alex-

Is it possible to use the strobes in their usual positions and add a third strobe for the subject? For instance putting a strobe in the hotshoe and using it to light the close-up subject. I tried without the third strobe recently but didn't like the result. I will try to add a pic tomorrow when I can find it on other computer.

Thank you Alex,

I've got some pool time in a couple of weeks and will have a play with this setup.

I'll post the results / learning outcomes to share.

Nige

Here's the shot I mentioned earlier. It seems that the light has fallen off the image as I had the strobes placed close to light the foreground subject. I thought a 3rd strobe might correct this and position the other 2 in normal wide angle. Any thoughts?